1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an appliance having an outer shell within which is positioned a liner having walls which are spaced from the outer shell so as to define an insulation zone therebetween and, more particularly, to a system used to support shelving extending across the liner walls in such an appliance, as well as a method of supporting the shelving.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In various types of appliances, it is common to provide some structure which will enable one or more shelves to be mounted within a given appliance compartment. For example, in a common household refrigerator, numerous shelves are generally provided in order to enable various items to be supported at different vertical storage positions. In the prior art, these shelves are typically supported through specific mounting structure provided within the refrigerator. Such mounting structure includes: integrally forming shelf supporting rails with a molded liner that defines the interior walls of a given refrigerator compartment; securing mounting brackets to opposing side walls of the liner through the use of mechanical fasteners; and positioning mounting sockets or grommets within apertures formed in the liner. Since it is highly desirable to permit these shelves to be vertically adjusted to selectively configure the overall shelving arrangement so as to accommodate varying sized items, multiple levels of these known mounting structures are generally provided in the refrigerator.
When forming the liner of a refrigerator or other appliance, it is desirable to minimize the required thickness of the liner to reduce manufacturing costs. When the liner is integrally formed with shelf supporting rails, the liner must be appropriately thickened at the rails to some extent in order to assure that the rails will not fail under load conditions. Therefore, forming the shelf supporting structure in this manner generally adds to the manufacturing cost of the liner. In addition, if such a supporting rail were to fail or become damaged during use, serviceability is greatly limited.
Forming the mounting structure by attaching mechanical fastener secured brackets to opposing side walls of the liner provides for enhanced servicing in the case of part failure since a new bracket can be readily installed in place of the damaged bracket. However, since any given shelf will generally require four or more mounting brackets and numerous shelves are provided, the original appliance assembly can be quite cumbersome and time consuming. In addition, this type of mounting structure has several parts which itself can add to the cost associated with manufacturing of the appliance.
Attaching mounting sockets or grommets in each of the opposed liner walls in order to support shelves therefrom can advantageously simplify the assembly process. In the type of appliances to which the present invention is directed, it has been proposed to arrange mounting sockets in apertures provided in each of the opposed liner side walls and to retain the mounting sockets in desired positions through an in-situ foaming process. More specifically, body portions of the mounting sockets are generally positioned within apertures provided in the opposing side walls of the liner after the liner has been placed in an outer cabinet shell of the appliance. Thereafter, the space between the liner and the cabinet shell is injected with foam insulation which will inherently flow about the body portions of the mounting sockets. Once solidified, the insulation tends to retain the mounting sockets in desired positions. It has also been proposed to provide each mounting socket with an annular flange at one end, as well as locating structure on the body portion of the socket at a position spaced from the annular flange a distance approximately equal to the thickness of the liner. With this arrangement, the socket can be snapped into a respective aperture with the liner being arranged between the annular flange and the locating structure in order to hold the socket in the desired position for the foam insulating operation.
Even though utilizing mounting sockets in the manner described above to support shelving within a compartment of an appliance reduces the number of supporting components and can simplify the assembly process as compared to previously proposed arrangements, these mounting socket arrangements still require an abundance of assembly steps that are typically performed manually. Therefore, during the assembly of a refrigerator cabinet, for example, after one or more liners are inserted within a cabinet shell, but before the insulating process, an individual mounting socket must be inserted into each of the apertures provided on both of the opposed side walls of the liner. Considering the repetitive nature of this endeavor, a fair amount of labor time is required to perform this step in the overall assembly process. In addition, the body portions of such known sockets extend generally perpendicular to the liner side walls. With this arrangement, the sockets tend to be forced back through the apertures during the in situ foaming process. Also, given the tolerances that must exist between the length of the shelf and the distance spanning the opposing liner side walls in order to mount a shelf that extends between the opposing side walls using such sockets, it is possible that the shelf can rotate and become dislodged from one or more of the sockets.
Based on the above, there exists a need in the art for a system that can be used to support shelving within an appliance with minimal effort, time and associated cost. In addition, there exists a need in the art for a shelving support system including sockets that are configured to enhance the ability of the sockets to be retained in a desired position while cooperating with shelf structure to prevent the shelf from rotating out of alignment. Furthermore, there exists a need in the art for a shelving support system that is extremely versatile such that it can be used with various types of shelf designs.